Whangārei District Council has put off any likely decision about whether to change tack on its fluoridation refusal after the mayor failed in his bid to take the debate behind closed doors.
In another twist in the council’s ongoing fluoridation refusal, the council today decided in a narrow 7:6 majority vote special emergency meeting not to go into a public-excluded debate about fluoridation.
The short-notice meeting, with a public excluded agenda, was then canned.
Instead, the council has set a new extraordinary meeting date for Monday, allowing three days’ notification with fluoridation on the agenda.
Some politicians are expecting this meeting to be a public meeting, but Whangārei Mayor Vince Cocurullo would not confirm whether that would be the case.
Cr Jayne Golightly livestreamed into the meeting whilst horse trekking, but her link became unreliable at the time of voting and her vote was therefore not counted.
Councillors who pushed for debate not to be confidential say they were pleased the discussion didn’t happen out of the public eye.
Cr Scott McKenzie said democracy was an important part of the fluoridation decision making process.
Whangārei councillor Ken Couper (in blue shirt) was sent out of the last extraordinary WDC council meeting at one point as fluoridation was being discussed - by Mayor Vince Cocurullo after he refused to stop his representations on the topic Photo / Susan Botting
Cr Ken Couper said the meeting vote was about transparency, regardless of which way people felt about fluoridation.
“It’s important people know what’s happening,” Couper said.
The mayor threw Couper out of the last fluoride-themed extraordinary council meeting in February for 10 minutes for not stopping his line of questioning during the debate.
“Today was unfortunately another step in a situation that should never have happened,” Couper said.
“It was a win for transparency.”
Couper said the meeting should still have gone ahead, after the move to shift debate out of the public eye failed.
He believed Cocurullo had the power as mayor to make that happen, in spite of potential issues around technical and legal meeting notification timings.
Meanwhile anti-fluoride Cr Benney, who wanted this morning’s debate to be confidential, said after the meeting he was philosophical about what had happened.
Benney said the only reason he’d wanted behind closed doors discussion was for legally privileged material, ahead of WDC’s High Court case, to be able to be freely discussed.
The hearing is set for March 18.
He said he was in favour of open democratic discussion on what was the controversial issue of fluoridating the council’s drinking water.
Whangārei District Councillor Scott McKenzie voted against this morning's fluoridation discussion being behind closed doors, in the interests of democracy Photo / Susan Botting
The meeting came as time is running out for the council as it needs significant lead-in time to test newly installed infrastructure ahead of any fluoridation start-up.
Eight working days are needed for this pre start up process.
WDC must fluoridate its water by March 28 after a directive to do so from the Director General of Health.
Failing to do so could see councillors risk jail if charged with not putting fluoridation into council drinking water for 80,000 people.
Whangārei ratepayers face a rates increase as the council looks at $5 million in extra costs and charges if it doesn’t fluoridate.
Cocurullo said after the meeting that discussing legally privileged information in private was a normal part of council process.
WDC on Friday said the Tuesday meeting’s purpose was for the council to consider legally privileged information about the council’s position on drinking water supply fluoridation.
Council lawyers applied to the High Court for a date to hear a council application for “urgent interim relief” so the council can delay its hands-on preparations for full fluoridation by the late March deadline.
The council wants the High Court to rule on which evidence about adding fluoride to drinking water is used to justify the government directive to do so.
Fluoridation has for months drawn the biggest sustained public gallery turnouts since the council moved into its civic centre Te Iwitahi in 2023.
Up to 100 people have attended every public council meeting where fluoridation has been discussed, since Whangārei District Council decided not to fluoridate on November 28.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
